Pseudo-Ciência nos Telemóveis

O blog De Rerum Natura destaca semanalmente o artigo do físico Robert Park sobre pseudo-ciência, e eu não resisto a colocar aqui o desta semana. Um dos mitos a que Park costuma dar atenção é o de que os telemóveis provocam cancro cerebral. A pachorra para este tipo de invenções sem sentido, por não estar de acordo nem com as teorias científicas nem com os dados experimentais, começa de facto a chegar ao fim. Mas, devido a uma campanha (que começa a ficar famosa) que pretende colocar avisos de risco de cancro nos telemóveis, Park volta a explicar mais uma vez:

From San Francisco to Maine there is a campaign to require cancer warning labels on cell phones. Fact: cell phone radiation doesn’t cause cancer. Cancer agents break chemical bonds, creating mutant strands of DNA. Microwave photons cannot break chemical bonds. This is not debatable. In 1989, Paul Brodeur, a staff writer for the New Yorker, claimed in a series of sensational articles that electromagnetic fields from power lines cause childhood leukemia. Brodeur, however, understood none of this and when virtually every scientist agreed that it was impossible, Brodeur took their unanimity as proof of a massive cover-up. Other anti-science know-nothings followed Brodeur’s lead, shifting their attack to cell phone radiation. Cell phones have since spread to almost the entire population, but with no corresponding increase in brain cancer. Case closed.